KUWAIT CITY, 29 May 2005 — State-run Kuwait National Petroleum Co. (KNPC) posted an almost seven-fold rise in net profits for the year to March 31, the company chairman said yesterday. Net profits reached a record 628 million dinars ($2.15 billion) from 95 million dinars ($322 million) in the previous year, Sami Al-Rasheed said.
“These profits are unprecedented in the company’s history,” Rasheed told a gathering of oil executives and reporters. The sharp increase in profits was attributed to a rise in the prices of oil products and increased operational efficiency, he said.
KNPC runs the emirate’s three refineries in the oil-rich southern region at a combined production capacity of around 920,000 barrels per day (bpd).
It also controls the domestic petrol market. The company plans to boost its refining capacity to 1.2 million bpd by 2011 by modernizing two of the three refineries and building a new refinery at a cost of over $8 billion, Rasheed said.
The upgrade project is estimated to cost around $3.4 billion and will be completed by the end of 2010 or early 2011.
The third refinery at Al-Shuaiba with a capacity of 200,000 bpd will be closed once the project to build the new refinery is completed in early 2010, Rasheed said. The capacity of the new refinery will range from 460,000 bpd if heavy crude is used to 600,000 bpd if medium crude is used, he said.
Kuwait sits on 10 percent of the world’s proven oil reserves and it currently produces at full capacity of 2.7 million bpd. The OPEC member plans to invest up to $40 billion in the next 15 years to modernize its oil sector which generates more than 90 percent of public revenue.